LONDON-Kennedy Wilson, based in Beverly Hills, CA, has made another large purchase from the Bank of Ireland, a $1.8 billion buy of a loan portfolio of office, multifamily and retail properties mostly in the London area. The company bought the bank’s management firm in June.
Most of the purchase, about $1.4 billion, closed on Friday. The rest is expected to close at the end of November.
Two weeks ago, the Bank of Ireland announced it will divest about $14 billion of its non-core portfolios by Dec. 31, 2013. The plan includes about $7 billion to be sold this year, including the KW deal, as well as another $1.6 billion in loans to Wells Fargo Bank, $1.7 billion to Nationwide Building Society and about $1 billion to GE Energy Financial Services. The total proceeds from these divestments will reduce the bank’s funding from monetary authorities in line with the bank’s deleveraging plan, according to a bank statement.
This summer KW had acquired the Bank of Ireland Real Estate Investment Management business, which represented about $2.3 billion of assets under management. The move created Kennedy Wilson Europe, with Peter Collins heading up this new firm.
William McMorrow, chairman and CEO of KW, said in June that his firm has been looking hard at Irish assets since the company’s debt troubles started. This new purchase increases the estimated value of the assets under the company’s management to $12 billion.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.
Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
*May exclude premium content© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
